Minister promises bigger wages for working people and support for country’s industry

Arvils Ašeradens/flickr.com/Saeima.

«Latvian Economy Ministry’s priorities for 2018 include increasing wages for working people and providing support to the country’s industry. For Latvia’s centenary year, every resident should have the right to experience the increase of the personal and state welfare,» promises Economy Minister Arvils Ašeradens.

The minister says the government continues working on different measures to help make economic growth in Latvia more rapid. «Our goal is making sure every third Latvian working person is paid a monthly salary of EUR 1,000,» said Ašeradens in his conversation with Prime Minister Māris Kučinskis about regards to the ministry’s priority directions.

«We have also added measures for better housing accessibility for families with children, especially in regions to our list of priorities. High priority will be given to further improvement of the mandatory procurement component system to ensure transparency and exclude potential fraud opportunities. We have plans for a number of measures to improve the transition of Latvia’s national economy to a more modern model, improving digitization of financial technologies and state services,» the minister added.

Work will continue this year on raising productivity and further improving the business sector, the ministry promises.

Ašeradens says the ministry plans to work on development of a competitive plan for attraction of investments and ICT education programme.

To improve innovations, Latvian government will continue realizing EU fund programme for better innovation capacity, as well as future development of start-up ecosystem and innovations in the energy sector, using a state research programme.

As for increasing export volumes, Economy Ministry promises to continue supporting involvement of businesses in different international expos, as well as realizing EU fund programmes to explore foreign markets and help businessmen establish a foothold in far-away markets, such as China, USA, United Arab Emirates, etc.